JW Sprague - A Civil War Biography

We were making the first of two cross country trips during the Covid summer of 2021, driving from Jonesboro, AR to Seattle, WA to attend the national convention of the Sons of the American Revolution. From Jonesboro in northeast, AR we had driven west through Bentonville, the home of Walmart, to Enid, OK to visit our oldest son. From Enid we checkerboarded our way north on US highways to Sioux Falls, SD where we hit I-90 and turned west. 

One of our entertainments along our westward way was listening to The Civil War & Reconstruction: A History Podcast by Rich & Tracy Youngdahl. I think Rich and Tracy provide one of the most informative and entertaining historical podcasts around. My wife and I would listen to three or four of their delightful, twenty-minute podcasts at a time. Their stories of the men and battles took us from Pea Ridge, AR to our ultimate destination in Seattle. By the time we arrived in Seattle we were in the lows 100s of their multi-year series.

We were enjoying a clear, warm summer day crossing the high desert wheat fields and badlands of eastern Washington when a highway sign caught my attention: Sprague. That was a name I had not heard in northeast Arkansas. But it was familiar. I spent most of my growing up years in Tacoma, WA. There was a road that crossed what was then known as the Nalley Valley, where the Nalley corporation had their giant pickle vats, that was named Sprague Avenue. I wondered aloud whether Sprague Ave. and the town Sprague were named after the same person, and who in the world Sprague was anyway!

So we did what any thoughtful, curious people would do, we Googled Sprague! That was my first introduction to John Wilson Sprague, the man after whom both the town and the street were named. Wikipedia has a short bio of Sprague. 

Early Life

Sprague was born in White Creek, NY. As an independent, entrepreneur Sprague moved to the Sandusky, OH region where he ran mercantile and shipping businesses. When the war erupted and Lincoln called for 100,000 men to quell the rebellion in 1861 Sprague, now a middle aged man, took on the business of raising a regiment, the 7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, of which he was captain.

Civil War

Sprague was captured in August 1861 and held prisoner for several months before he was freed through a prisoner exchange. In January 1862 the Ohio 7th was consolidated into the 63rd, a command he served in throughout much of the rest of the war. Sprague served first under Major General John Pope in the west from Missouri to the battles of Iuka and Corinth in Mississippi. Then his command was transferred to the army of Major General William Tecumseh Sherman as they moved into eastern Tennessee, then made the drive to Atlanta that made Sherman famous.

As colonel of the Ohio 63rd, during the Battle for Atlanta, on July 22, 1864, Sprague skillfully defended one of Sherman's supply trains of hundreds of wagons, an action for which he won a Congressional Medal of Honor for, "With a small command defeated an overwhelming force of the enemy and saved the trains of the corps."

On July 30, 1864 Sprague was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, a rank he held during the remainder of Sherman's March to the Sea, then his drive north through the Carolinas and finally to Washington. As the war ended, on April 3, 1866, president Andrew Johnson nominated Sprague for promotion to brevet Major General. The United States congress confirmed this appointment on April 26, 1866.

Freedmen's Bureau

Following the end of the war, Sprague served for two years as assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau under the congressionally appointed Major General Oliver Otis Howard. Sprague led the Arkansas bureau, which also served Missouri, Kansas, and the Indian Territory.

Railroad Life

In February 1867 Sprague moved to Minnesota where he was resident director of the Winona and St. Paul Railroad Company. After four years in that role, Sprague accepted the position of general manager of the western division of the Northern pacific Railroad. He moved to a small settlement on the southern end of Puget Sound, on the shores of Commencement Bay in Washington Territory. From this bare spot of logged out forest, Sprague directed the westerns division of the NPRR as the company built a rail line across the northern plains of the United States. The finish of this, the second transcontinental rail line, was celebrated in Montana on September 8, 1883, when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final golden spike.

Tacoma, Washington

As director of the western division of the NPRR, Sprague's influence was strong in the growing towns of Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland. One of Sprague's more significant publicity accomplishments was helping bring president Rutherford B. Hayes, along with his entourage, which included Sprague's former commander and friend General Sherman, to the Columbia port of Kalama. From there the presidential artery took the train south to Olympia, then back north through Steilacoom, ending in Tacoma where Sprague entertained the president and party in his home. President Hayes was the first U.S. president to visit Tacoma.

After a bout of ill health, in December 1883, Sprague was nominated and elected to become the first mayor of the consolidated cities of Tacoma and New Tacoma. Sprague served as mayor until the May 1884 election, in which he declined to run. But he maintained active social work, helping form the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce, which he served as the first president. 

Death

John Wilson Sprague died on December 24, 1893 of heart failure at his Tacoma home at 2230 So. Tacoma Avenue. He received the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously on January 18, 1894. He was buried in the Tacoma Cemetery, the first Medal of Honor recipient to be buried in Washington State.

Worthy of a Biography

Gena and I were amazed at the life of this man: a Civil War general, a Medal of Honor recipient, a significant force in the construction of the second transcontinental railroad, a friend of presidents and generals, and the first mayor of Tacoma. I was also amazed at how much of my life had occurred where his life had, in Tacoma and eastern Arkansas where Sprague ran the Freedmen's Bureau.

It was also a wonder that a man who thrived during the traumas of war, who served to bind the wounds of a torn country protecting the newfound freedoms of the nation's former slaves, who literally brought the country together via the long rail, and helped establish one of the major towns of the west coast was a man who, to at time, was almost lost to memory. Surely, his was a life worthy of a biography.

And thus it was that as we neared the end of our cross country journey that summer of 2021 that I began a new journey, a journey to uncover the life of a forgotten hero of our country. Surely there are lessons to be learned about how to bring together a country torn asunder by issues of politics, economy, and racial freedom. 

This is how my journey to research and write a biography of JW Sprague began. Through writing and reflecting in this blog I will capture the ideas, the life, and the insights that, with God's grace, will one day grace the pages of a book.